Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject

In Politics of Piety, anthropologist Saba Mahmood examines the women's mosque movement in Cairo, Egypt during the 1990s through ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation. Her research centers on women who participate in religious study circles and practices aimed at cultivating Islamic virtues. The book challenges Western liberal and feminist assumptions about agency, freedom, and resistance through close study of the movement's participants. Mahmood documents how these women pursue religious knowledge and ethical self-formation through practices like veiling, prayer, and scriptural study. Based on two years of fieldwork in Cairo mosques, the text presents detailed accounts of religious teaching sessions, conversations with participants, and observations of daily religious practices. The narrative follows several key informants while exploring broader questions about secular-liberal politics and religious movements. The work presents critiques of how Western scholarship has understood religious movements and female agency, suggesting new frameworks for analyzing the relationship between religion, politics, and gender. Through examination of Islamic piety practices, Mahmood raises fundamental questions about secularism, embodiment, and moral formation.

Readers describe this book as theoretically dense but valuable for understanding Islamic feminism and religious movements. Many note it challenges Western liberal assumptions about agency, freedom, and women's roles in religious communities. Likes: - Detailed ethnographic research in Cairo mosques - Fresh perspective on feminist theory and secular liberalism - Clear analysis of how religious practices shape ethical behavior - Thoughtful critique of Western views on Muslim women Dislikes: - Academic language makes it inaccessible to general readers - Some sections are repetitive - Takes time to get to main arguments - Heavy on theory, light on ethnographic details From review sites: Goodreads: 4.15/5 (221 ratings) "Changed how I think about agency and resistance" - Goodreads reviewer Amazon: 4.4/5 (31 ratings) "Dense but rewarding" - Amazon reviewer Google Books: 4/5 (47 ratings) "Important contribution but difficult reading" - Google Books reviewer

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🔹 The book challenges Western feminist assumptions by examining the women's mosque movement in Egypt, showing how some Muslim women find empowerment through religious practices that many Western feminists view as oppressive. 🔹 Saba Mahmood conducted her fieldwork in Cairo between 1995 and 1997, attending women's religious lessons in mosques across different socioeconomic neighborhoods of the city. 🔹 The women's mosque movement described in the book emerged as part of the Islamic Revival (or Islamic Awakening) that began in the 1970s across the Muslim world, transforming mosques from male-dominated spaces to places where women actively participate in religious education. 🔹 The author, who passed away in 2018, was a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and her work has significantly influenced how scholars think about agency, feminism, and secularism in the Muslim world. 🔹 The book won multiple awards, including the Victoria Schuck Award from the American Political Science Association and the Clifford Geertz Prize from the Society for the Anthropology of Religion.